{"id":8216,"date":"2022-05-25T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T12:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2024-04-11T07:58:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T07:58:34","slug":"remembering-reesh-saying-yes-to-life-and-running-cardiff-half-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2022\/05\/25\/remembering-reesh-saying-yes-to-life-and-running-cardiff-half-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Reesh \u2013 saying yes to life and running Cardiff Half Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Stephenson (BA 2008) has signed up to run Cardiff Half Marathon<\/a> in October in memory of her friend Areesha. She\u2019s raising money for Cardiff University\u2019s cancer research and was inspired by her friend\u2019s strength in the face of a devastating diagnosis, and \u2018say yes to everything\u2019 attitude.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I was active and sporty from a young age. I was also \u2013 and remain \u2013 incredibly competitive. From cycling, roller blading, football, netball and hockey \u2013 you name it, I gave it a go. The one thing I never tried was running. It wasn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n

At 23, I discovered roller derby \u2013 a full contact sport played on quad skates \u2013 which I played for six years. As well as improved strength and fitness, skating gave me a wonderful friendship group. We were thrown together as teammates, but we\u2019ve stayed close – no longer simply friends from skating, but close friends. Those who\u2019ve stood alongside each other as we got married, had babies, nursed broken hearts, bought houses and, most recently, as we comforted one another after losing one of our gang, Areesha (Reesh). She was 35.<\/p>\n

Reesh was a force to be reckoned with. She was ambitious, confident, and competitive. She was loud, dramatic, talkative, and effortlessly funny \u2013 often without meaning to be. She was unapologetically herself and made friends with everyone she met. Reesh said yes to every opportunity that came her way. She is the only person I know who has had multiple once-in-a-lifetime holidays and who can\u2019t possibly know what FOMO is because she never\u2026 well, missed out! I am so glad that she lived that way.<\/p>\n

In March 2021, Reesh was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She believed that the best way to face treatment was to think positively. And, outwardly at least, she did. She threw herself into raising money for charity and exploring treatments that might help. We were her cheerleaders\u2013 staying positive on the days she couldn\u2019t and still doing \u2018normal\u2019 things. She didn\u2019t want to be defined by her illness, so we made sure she wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Sadly, on 19 February 2022, Reesh passed away. I\u2019ve never felt a loss like it. I can\u2019t bring myself to say that she \u2018lost\u2019 her battle with cancer because I don\u2019t like the implication. If cancer was a thing that could be beaten, then someone with Reesh\u2019s strength and determination would do it. And within our group of pals, including managers, coaches, engineers, strategists and statisticians, we\u2019d have come up with a game plan and got it done. But that\u2019s not how this works.<\/p>\n

So, inspired by Reesh\u2019s \u2018say yes to everything\u2019 attitude, buoyed by the reminder of how short life is, recognising that I\u2019ve been taking my health and wellbeing for granted and feeling slightly jealous of the achievements of those who ran the half marathon in March (there\u2019s that competitive edge coming through!), I signed up for the half marathon with #TeamCardiff<\/a> to raise money for cancer research.<\/p>\n

Aside from doing Couch to 5k in late 2021, after which I returned to the couch, I have never run before. I am not a runner. I am, however, goal oriented; if I set my mind to something, I get it done. I was daunted about training, but I\u2019ve revisited C25K runs, found a tailored training plan, and one of our group has agreed to run it with me. The latter prompted me to start referring to the half marathon as a race \u2013 I can\u2019t help it! I\u2019ve even turned my fundraising<\/a> into a competition.<\/p>\n

I have been blown away by the generosity of those who\u2019ve donated already. It adds extra fuel to my fire on those days where I don\u2019t fancy lacing up my trainers or where the pull of an extra episode on Netflix is stronger than the urge to pound the pavement. I\u2019ve had some great advice from friends about mixing up my running routes, so I don\u2019t get bored, using podcasts for longer runs and experimenting with nutrition too. I\u2019ve found some great running communities on Twitter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common for people who become unwell or who get life changing news to write a bucket list. That wasn\u2019t necessary for Reesh because that is just how she lived \u2013 a lesson for us all, I think, and I hope that signing up to run the half marathon is the first step on my mission to #BeMoreReesh.<\/p>\n

You can support Laura\u2019s fundraising through her JustGiving page<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to run Cardiff Half Marathon in memory, celebration, or simply to give yourself a challenge and get fit, apply for a free #TeamCardiff charity place<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

#TeamCardiff fundraising supports Cardiff University\u2019s neuroscience and mental health, and cancer research. By supporting the next generation of researchers, you can help accelerate life-changing discoveries to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for people living with a wide range of conditions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laura Stephenson (BA 2008) has signed up to run Cardiff Half Marathon in October in memory of her friend Areesha. She\u2019s raising money for Cardiff University\u2019s cancer research and was inspired by her friend\u2019s strength in the face of a devastating diagnosis, and \u2018say yes to everything\u2019 attitude.","protected":false},"author":934,"featured_media":8217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[211,199,39,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teamcardiff","category-alumni-stories","category-cardiff-connect","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/934"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8266,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions\/8266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}